Thread: 3 Boston Cops Arrested In Alleged Drug Conspiracy

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/95 ... s&psp=news

BOSTON -- Three Boston police officers who allegedly thought they were being paid by drug dealers to protect a cocaine shipment have been charged as part of a corruption probe that prosecutors said uncovered a range of crimes and could implicate other Boston cops.

U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said Roberto Pulido, 41, a 10-year veteran of the police force, committed crimes ranging from buying and selling fraudulent store gift cards to providing protection at illegal parties with prostitutes.

Pulido and officers Carlos Pizarro, 36, and Nelson Carrasquillo, 35, were arrested on federal drug charges late Thursday in Miami. The three were allegedly in Miami to collect a $35,000 payment from undercover FBI agents they thought were drug dealers who'd hired them to protect a shipment of cocaine in Massachusetts.

All three officers are expected to face additional charges, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said at a news conference Friday.

"The alleged criminal activities of Pulido, Pizarro and Carrasquillo are truly appalling and are an affront to every decent law enforcement officer," Sullivan said.

The corruption probe, which is continuing, could extend beyond the three officers. During the investigation, Pulido "unwittingly provided extensive information about the illegal conduct of other Boston police officers, other public officials, and private citizens," Boston FBI Agent Michael J. Kreizenbeck said in an affidavit made public after the arrests.

Sullivan refused to say how many other officers could be involved. He referred to Pulido, Pizarro and Carrasquillo as "a handful of rogue cops" who "ignored their oath of office." "If there is sufficient evidence to charge any other individual, they will be charged," Sullivan said.

All three officers appeared briefly Friday in federal court in Miami but did not enter any pleas to the drug charge. They were ordered kept in custody until a detention hearing on Wednesday. A hearing on their return to Boston was scheduled for Aug. 2.

A judge said he would appoint attorneys for all three for the Miami proceedings. Prosecutors said they would ask that the officers be kept in custody until their trial, in part because of possible danger to a witness in the case.

A call for comment to the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association was not immediately returned Friday.

Sullivan said that between 2003 and 2006, FBI agents and officers from the Boston Police Department Anti-Corruption Squad found that Pulido had participated in a wide range of criminal activities, with Pizarro and Carrasquillo taking part in some of them.

In conversations recorded during the investigation, Pulido allegedly admitted smuggling illegal aliens into the United States for $5,000 per person, fixing tickets, trafficking in stolen electronics and aiding loan sharking. Authorities said he also imported and sold steroids.

Authorities also said Pulido provided protection from police at a building in the Hyde Park section of Boston where police and criminals allegedly partied together. The parties featured nude dancers, prostitutes and drug sales, according to the affidavit.

Pulido was paid $600 to protect the parties and said that he, in turn, made payments to one or more superior officers in the police department, according to the affidavit.

The parties were attended by "a combination of well-known felons, including drug dealers, and law enforcement officers" from the Boston police and other departments, some of whom attended in uniform, the affidavit states.

Sullivan said authorities began investigating Pulido in November 2003 while the FBI was probing an identity theft ring operating along the East Coast. In the affidavit, authorities said that Pulido bought fraudulent gift cards from a man who had worked for the ring, but later began cooperating with authorities. Pulido also allegedly provided personal information, including Social Security numbers, on about 160 people to the cooperating witness, believing it would be used to open fraudulent lines of credit to buy more gift cards.

He got the information by running a Registry of Motor Vehicles check of the license plates of people he stopped or arrested in his job as a police officer, authorities said.

According to the affidavit, Pulido bought approximately $108,000 worth of fraudulent gift cards at half price, and used the cards himself to buy a plasma television and expensive gifts for his family and friends. He also allegedly sold some of the cards for a profit.

Albert Goslin, the superintendent-in-chief of the police department, called the alleged activities "unprofessional and atrocious." He said the department has started the process to place the three officers on administrative leave.

"This conduct will not be tolerated," Goslin said.

Is Boston in Mexico?

No, New York is.